Safety Meetings - Keeping Things Current

Hello there. One way to keep your safety program interesting and engaging for your employees is to keep it current. There is nothing worse than asking an employee to sit for 45 minutes watching a video that was produced in 1985. It makes me think of the very first safety meeting I conducted. I showed a video on winter driving that was so old there was St. Johnsbury trucks involved in the production. It was awful. On the other hand it shows how far we have come. Our last round of safety meetings I tried a different program called Prezi. While it was a little tricky and time consuming to prepare, it was different from the usual PowerPoint slideshow I have been using. Prezi is a web based program that involves zooming in and out across the screen. It is like a journey - as we called it, our journey to safety excellence. Using a device called Apple TV I was able to conduct the entire meeting wirelessly through my iphone. It was pretty neat and all our employees were very engaged. Check it out at www.prezi.com.

Good drivers take ownership of their responsibilities and the equipment they’re operating. It is imperative this desire is fed on a regular basis, and fed with the most accurate and up to date information possible. I rely on a variety of sources to keep me current so I in turn can keep our people current. Your state trucking associations can be a very good resource. The MMTA’s are particularly good (Massachusetts Motor Transportation Association and Maine Motor Transportation Association). They both send out email notifications of changing rules regulations. Things can change very rapidly in the transportation industry. Both associations will answer the phone and answer questions when needed. JJ Keller publishes a number of monthly newsletters that can be helpful as well. I particularly like their Hazmat Transportation Report. This publication keeps me informed of proposed rule makings in time to comment directly to the DOT before any proposed rulemaking are put into law.    

Any way you stay current works, but remember nobody will buy into an old, stale, outdated safety program, so to get your program working you've got to stay updated.  

Good Luck!

Matt

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